Volume 22, Issue 1

This paper discusses two arguments raised against Hornstein's (Linguistic Inquiry 30: 69–96, 1999, Move! A minimalist theory of construal, Blackwell, 2001) Movement Theory of Control (MTC): Landau's (Linguistic Inquiry 34: 471–498, 2003) contrast between raising and passivized subject control predicates and Culicover and Jackendoff's (Linguistic Inquiry 30: 483–512, 2001) contrast between control and raising within nominals. I show that rather than counter-arguments, the data they present can actually be analyzed as arguments in favor of the MTC. More specifically, I argue that the puzzling contrasts discussed by these authors can be adequately accounted for within the MTC if minimality computations regarding A-movement are relativized in terms of φ - or θ -relations.

This article explores adjectival degree constructions formed around the copular element de ‘of’ in Spanish such as un montón de listo (a load of smart, ‘considerably smart’), como tú de gordo (like you of fat, ‘as fat as you’), and así de alto (this of tall, ‘this tall’.) In these constructions, a predication relation takes place between the degree to which the property denoted by the adjective is possessed (the subject) and the different expressions appearing to the left of the copular element de ‘of’ (the predicate). A subdivision is made between “identificative predicative degree constructions” (IPDCs) and “evaluative predicative degree constructions” (EPDCs). In the former, the predication is done by means of a comparative clause ( {como tú/igual que tú} de gordo , like you of fat, ‘as fat as you’) or a deictic lexical unit ( así de alto , this of tall, ‘this tall’). In the latter, the predicate is a nominal expression ( un montón/mogollón/la tira/la hostia . . . } de listo , {loads/a load/the strip/the host . . . } of smart, ‘considerably smart’). This distinction is based on a number of contrasting properties that these two types of predicative degree constructions display with respect to evaluativity, combination with degree clauses introduced by para ‘for’, (in)felicity in definite environments, (in)compatibility with non-specific indefinite DPs, functioning as a nominal predicate, subject-predicate/predicate-subject word order alternations, and information structure. It is argued that the divergent semantic, pragmatic, and formal properties found in IPDCs and EPDCs come as a result of the different nature of the degree predicate involved in each type of construction and a dissimilar syntactic configuration of the predication relation (under the syntactic theory of predication in Den Dikken, Relators and linkers. The syntax of predication, predicate inversion, and copulas, MIT Press, 2006).

This paper centers on the nature of Spanish TP-ellipsis (e.g., Juan fue al cine y María también , lit. ‘Juan went to the cinema and Mary also’), paying special attention to its behavior in contexts of long extraction of the remnant of the elliptical site. The long extraction data provide further evidence that TP-ellipsis in Spanish behaves as Clitic Left Dislocation. In particular, TP-ellipsis is sensitive to adjunct and relative islands. These facts lead us to the question of why other cases of TP-ellipsis, namely, sluicing, can indeed repair islands. I show that an approach such as the one in Merchant (Linguistics and Philosophy 27: 661–738, 2004, Variable island repair under ellipsis, Cambridge University Press, 2008) is not able to derive this pattern and propose an alternative solution. Assuming that ellipsis and copy deletion form a natural class (Chomsky, A minimalist program for linguistic theory, MIT Press, 1993, Chomsky, The minimalist program, MIT Press, 1995), I argue that the presence or absence of island repair effects is derived as a matter of identity. Basically, a phrasal copy is elided under the same mechanism that applies in normal cases of ellipsis. A copy that is elided in a given syntactic cycle is not computed for the identity condition on ellipsis in a later cycle. By contrast, if a copy cannot be elided in a syntactic cycle, it has to be computed for identity reasons at the ellipsis cycle. Under the assumption that indefinites and traces of wh -phrases are identical for the purposes of identity, it follows that ellipsis under wh -sluicing can feed elision of the wh -copies in the elliptical gap when there is an explicit indefinite in the correlate. This is never the case with Spanish TP-ellipsis because the copies of a left dislocated remnant never have an identical correlate in the antecedent.

The goal of the present paper is to identify some of the differences in the intonation of Catalan and Spanish as spoken in Majorca. The tonal features we investigated were: (1) utterance-final pitch accents in broad focus declaratives, and (2) local contrastive focus pitch accents. Previous research, mostly on related varieties, such as Central Catalan and Castilian Spanish, had indirectly suggested that potential differences could arise with regards to these specific configurations (Estebas, Phonetic and phonological properties of the final pitch accent in Catalan declaratives: 35–40, Université de Nantes, 2003a, Estebas, Atlantis Journal 25: 39–53, 2003c; Face, Intonational marking of contrastive focus in Madrid Spanish, Lincom Europa, 2002a, Face, Southwest Journal of Linguistics 23: 65–79, 2004). The Majorcan dialects of Catalan and Spanish were found to fundamentally differ in the shape and alignment patterns of their utterance-final pitch accents (of broad focus declaratives) in that Catalan displayed low or falling pitch accents while Spanish presented small rising-falling pitch accents. On the other hand, statistical differences were found with respect to the alignment of pitch valleys culminating rising-falling pitch contours in contrastive focus accents. Overall, the findings reported here add to our knowledge of the intonational differences and similarities between Romance languages by comparing two contact languages using similar materials and under identical experimental conditions. These findings are relevant for comparative-historical purposes and future language contact studies.